John Henry Engineering

Last week's Fun Friday engineering project was based on the tall tale of John Henry. During the week, the girls first watched a short video and then read this book by Julius Lester as well as this Mary Ann Hoberman book.  After learning all about John Henry and his story, the girls were challenged to make a 2 foot train that could stand on it's own, using only duct tape and toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls.  (Many thanks to everyone who sent in supplies for this!). Once they created their trains, they had to measure them to make sure they were the correct length and we checked to make sure they were sturdy and free standing. Just like our other engineering projects, we emphasized the importance of planning, trial and error, and working together.

Here are the girls working with their partners and using the plans they designed to make their trains.

The final product--- a group of very proud train engineers!

Short i

In our language arts period, the girls reviewed the short i sound.  As a group, we matched words with corresponding pictures. The girls then drew a pig (very similar to our beloved Wilbur) and wrote 5 short i words inside of their pigs.

In the Creation Station

During Technology in the Creation Station, the girls began the year by working on learning the rules and routines and iPad basics.  Next, they started partner work to earn badges.  The "teachers" for the week met with me to learn a new skill then had to teach it to the "students".  If both partners successfully completed the task, they earned a badge to add to their baggie.  Badges included items like popsicle sticks, nails, screws, wire, and more.  The badges will be used during Art to create a kinetic sculpture.  After earning several badges, the girls learned how to use a hammer, in order to help with the sculpture.  We talked about safety and how a hammer can be used.  The apps we have learned are Faces iMake and My Story.

Catching Up in Pre-First and Spirit Day

Hen, pet, men, peg...what do these words have in common?  They all contain the short e vowel sound.  This week we focused on this sound during our language arts period.  The girls were introduced to the sound by a fun video on the Starfall website--if you have a chance, check it out as it has a ton of great games, books, and videos that reinforce the different sounds and word families we will work on in our classroom.  After the video, we matched short e words with pictures and then the girls played a game in small groups called "Scrub the Decks".  Make sure you ask them about it!  

The girls had to work in pairs to sort short e words into "real" or "silly" categories.

We also added the fifth petal to our daisy people--cooperation.  The girls watched a clever short video and we had a class discussion about what it looks like when a group of people cooperate. After that, we gave the girls a cup, paperclips, a gummy worm named Sam, and a gummy lifesaver.  The girls had to cooperate and "save" Sam (flip the cup over, put the lifesaver on Sam, and put him in the cup) without touching anything except the paperclips.

We have been focusing on number words this week during math.  Today, the girls rotated through three centers which focused on this skill: candy corn memory, pumpkin number word matching, and an iPad math app.

And we can't leave out Spirit Day! The rain didn't hold us back from celebrating with a parade in the Elementary Center!

French: Les Madeleines

In French class, the Pre-First girls have been learning all about the little French cakes (not cookies!) called madeleines. The girls heard the legend of how they got their name from a servant girl named Madeleine. We discussed how the cakes look like seashells or les coquilles. The girls identified the ingredients in madeleines and learned how to say them in French: le beurre, le lait, la farine, le sucre, le citron, and les oeufs. On Monday, we had a special, surprise French class where we made real madeleines. The batter needs to rest so I kept it in the fridge overnight and baked the cakes right before class on Tuesday. We had a fun-filled and tasty week in French!

If you would like to try your hand at baking madeleines at home with your daughter, here is the recipe we used: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/daniel-bouluds-madeleines. Bon appétit!

Art_Teaching & Learning Partners

Wow! These girls have learned a lot in art already and they have taught themselves! Each class they have a teaching/learning partner. The "teachers" learn a new skill and then teach the "learners". They all demonstrate their new skill and earn "badges" which are really tools and materials for the first big project: Kinetic Sculptures. 

Here they are in action using watercolors. Ask them what they tricks they know about that material!

Predictions

The girls became fortune tellers today as they learned about prediction during our author's study. We read Shortcut by Donald Crews and discussed why predicting what happens next in a story is important to overall understanding.  We stopped reading the book halfway through and gave the girls "crystal balls."  The girls had to draw what they predicted would happen next in the story.

When they were done, we turned off our lights and held a flashlight to the bottom of their "crystal balls" while they shared their predictions.